Saturday, June 25, 2011

Rather than get up at a decent hour to post this morning's Lineup Card, I slept in. Hey, I was up until six this morning writing up my Saturday morning recaps for Big League Stew, so I give myself a pass this time. But I kind of wish I had dragged my ass out of bed anyway, because it would have been fun commenting on that lineup Jim Tracy filled out.

Geez.

So here's the deal on that. Wednesday I defended Tracy for sitting three starters in the series finale in Cleveland. I'll still defend that. It was obvious Todd Helton, Charlie Blackmon and Chris Iannetta needed that day off. With the off day Thursday, I was completely in favor of how Jim planned that to buy Todd and Chris especially 48 hours of rest.

Today: I wasn't too surprised to see Seth Smith and Blackmon benched. That's the norm for Smith against any lefty, especially one of CC Sabathia's caliber. But when that leaves you with Eric Young in the outfield, are you really gaining anything? Are you really doing your players right when you're not only putting one out of position, but pretty much telling the rest I'm waving the white flag today. Here's my 25th man in right. My 24th man behind the plate. And my 23rd man in left field to support my 5th starting pitcher.

How else can you take it? You're playing the New York Yankees in their stadium, facing their ace, with their A lineup, and you have Eric Young in right field. I don't think Jim Tracy sent a real positive message to his team by doing that. And then you have Matt Pagnozzi in there. Alright. That's fine, but Chris Iannetta better be ready to go for 3-4 days now. No reason not to be.

Hey, I openly admit I didn't have much faith in this matchup either. But I don't think putting that belief so clearly out there that the fans and opposing announcers are questioning you is the best way to go for the manager. That criticism only intensified when Tracy removed all of his key starters with the Rockies down 6-0 in the 7th.

Also, I don't really buy the whole "managing to win the series" excuse either. A win today would have won the series. Yes, I know sometime's you have to be wise about picking your battles, but I honestly don't like tomorrow's pitching matchup that much better than I liked today's. Nova has looked pretty solid the times I've seen him. Nicasio against those left-handed mashers?

Aaron Cook: Every time we write him off, he rebounds with a clutch performance. So let me make it crystal clear right now that I am writing Aaron Cook off. Someone make sure he sees this.

Ty Wigginton: In the past week he has homered off Justin Verlander and CC Sabathia, sandwiched around a multi-HR game in Cleveland. He's welcome to stay for awhile.

Eric Young: I'll just repeat what I tweeted during the game. It's not all Eric's fault he's playing out of position, but he better start adjusting if he plans on having an MLB career. One position players with limited offensive upside don't have a real long shelf life at this level. Sooner or later he's going to have to take ownership of the situation, make it work for him, and make it worthwhile for the Rockies to keep him around.

Overall: Bitching and moaning aside, a win on Sunday would do wonders for my confidence is this team. It's wavering right now. We're 76 games in and it still feels like this season could go any number of ways in a hurry. I guess that's the way it always feels, but it feels more like that than ever as we approach this final week of June.